Cell phone epidemic hurts education

Updated 7:20 pm, Friday, February 15, 2013

Michael Bommer is a high school English teacher in the Northside Independent School District. His blog is www.brainwrapblog.com.

Michael Bommer is a high school English teacher in the Northside Independent School District. His blog is www.brainwrapblog.com.

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Cell phone epidemic hurts education

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It's been debated countless times as to the affect of technological advances on America as a whole. Is it negative? Is it positive? Is it a hodgepodge of the two?

As an educator in the public school system, I find myself at a crossroads. Personally, I love the innovations mankind has constructed for itself.

Professionally, technology has made my job extraordinarily difficult.

One particular device that has become the bane of my working life is the cellphone.

It is difficult enough to establish communication with teenagers, and attempting to teach them a curriculum they have no desire to learn in the first place is almost impossible. Tossing these powerful cellular distractions into the mix only moves the odds further out of our favor.

And for those readers questioning the effectiveness of teacher classroom management, know that there is some truth to your query. Please also note that, while discipline techniques are always in play during school hours, there are upwards of 30 students in any given classroom. And in any given classroom, there are one or two teachers standing vigil over them. And nine out of 10 students have cell phones. In the words of Robin Williams, “Does the name Custer mean anything to you?”

There is a wide assortment of approaches to the cellphone epidemic available to educators, some of them efficacious, some of them not so much. I have a colleague who requires his students to surrender their cellphones every time they go to the restroom. Upon their return, the phone is handed back. He swears that this tactic works as a pre-emptive strike in the war on spending 15 minutes texting in the restroom, and I have no reason to doubt him.

So what's the solution? How does this conflict get brought to a close? At this juncture, I don't believe there is a solution, at least not one most public schools can afford.

Teenagers aren't going to give up their phones willingly; it's ingrained in their culture. And with each new development in the field of communication and entertainment, it's only going to instill itself deeper.

As youth marches forward, so does the universe of the high tech. The battle rages onward.

Michael Bommer is a high school English teacher in the Northside Independent School District. His blog is www.brainwrapblog.com.